Omaha on the line: Wacha, Aggies ready for finale vs. FSU

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Michael Wacha said he wasn’t ready to pitch on Sunday. He should be ready to go tonight, with a berth in the College World Series on the line between Texas A&M and Florida State. Wacha told me minutes after Sunday night’s Game 2 of the NCAA tournament super regional that coach Rob Childress made the right call in resting him one more day.

“I’m appreciative coach gave me that extra day’s rest,” Wacha said. “(Ross Stripling) pitched a heck of a game (one) to give me that extra day, it’s going to help a lot. My arm felt pretty sore on Saturday, but just throwing today it felt pretty good.”

Wacha, the Aggies’ ace, had started two games over the previous nine days in the regional at College Station. He said tonight’s start – a 6 p.m. super regional finale on ESPN2 – “is what you live for.”

A&M won the first game 6-2 behind Stripling and FSU countered with a 23-9 victory on Sunday against Derrick Hadley and a host of others.

“They’ll punish your mistakes,” Wacha said of one of the nation’s top offenses. “I just have to work on keeping the ball down and hitting my spots. They have great crowd support here, and this place is pretty lively when it gets going. Hopefully we can keep that down.”

The Seminoles counter the 6-foot-6 Wacha (8-3, 2.10 ERA) with Hunter Scantling (3-2, 3.84), who’s 6 foot 8 and 270 pounds. Scantling has given up at least four runs in three of his last five outings. He last threw on June 3 against Bethune-Cookman in the Tallahassee regional, allowing three runs over 4 1/3 innings in a 6-5 FSU victory.

The highlight of Scantling’s season came on April 12, when he defeated rival Florida 3-1 by allowing three hits and no runs over seven innings, while striking out seven. In any case, the Aggies should be in better shape on the pitching front than the Seminoles, but 23 runs in a game has a way of earning a pitcher’s attention.

“They can hit,” Wacha said of the free-swinging Seminoles. “If you leave a ball out over the plate, they won’t miss it.”

Tonight marks the A&M program’s biggest game in 12 years, considering that’s the last time the Aggies played a contest with a CWS berth in Omaha, Neb., in the balance.

“We’re not going to give up,” said senior Andrew Collazo, whose lone home run of the season won the Big 12 tournament. “We’re just going to keep coming, and I like our chances.”